Vivendi SA and others will pay $275 million to settle shareholder litigation arising from its $8.2 billion sale of a stake in Activision Blizzard Inc. back to the videogame maker last year.

Under the terms of the deal, which was made public Wednesday afternoon, Activision Blizzard will also add two new directors to its board and change the terms of its voting rights. Plaintiffs’ lawyers will also recover their fees and costs, which are likely to run into the tens of millions of dollars. Read More »

A small biotech company has found itself at the center of a debate over who should pay when stockholders sue and lose.

Hemispherx BioPharma Inc., a Philadelphia-based maker of drugs to treat immune diseases including AIDS, has spent the past year battling a shareholder lawsuit over $2.5 million in bonuses it paid to its executives in 2012. Read More »

Two companies have decided to seize a newly created opportunity to shift corporate legal fees to shareholders.

Such “loser pays” bylaws, which require any investors who sue a company and lose to pay their costs, have been much discussed in recent weeks, after a recent Delaware Supreme Court decision appeared to open the door to them.

Yet Echo Therapeutics Inc., a Philadelphia-based maker of medical devices, and LGL Group Inc., an electrical-components maker, appear to be the first companies to adopt them, doing so last month, regulatory filings show. Read More »

Hewlett Packard Co. confirmed Friday it is negotiating to settle three lawsuits related to its 2011 acquisition of software firm Autonomy, but the company hasn’t yet moved past the fallout from the disastrous deal.

H-P CEO Meg Whitman in 2012 said the company was duped into overpaying for Autonomy by what she said were financials that appeared to have been willfully inflated. Autonomy’s former CEO has denied repeatedly accusations of improper accounting. Read More »

The Supreme Court appeared divided into three camps on whether to overrule or alter a long-standing legal precedent that provides the foundation for many class-action lawsuits alleging securities fraud.

The court heard an hour-long oral argument in a case involving Halliburton Co. and whether to overturn a 1988 Supreme Court decision which held that investors in securities-fraud lawsuits don’t have to prove they relied upon any misleading statements by a company.

By the end of an hour-long argument session, it appeared some justices were looking for a middle-ground to resolve the case. Read More »

From a proxy fight at energy company Hess Corp. to arguments over capital allocation at Apple Inc., shareholder activism continued to grab headlines this year.

In-house lawyers who watch over litigation dockets at big corporations are keeping tabs. According to a recent survey of 47 chief litigation officers, 34% reported a rise in shareholder activism over the past year. The poll was taken at a litigation forum last month for Fortune 1000 companies.

That uptick could produce “a higher volume of control-centered litigation and related disputes in the months ahead,” according to Paul Mandell, founder and chief executive of Consero Group LLC, which put on the conference and performed the survey. . . Read More »

Bank of America wipes off one more unknown hanging over its head from the financial crisis with a $2.43 billion settlement today, but at the same time shows it legal costs are still piling up.

The Charlotte bank announced the big settlement with shareholders who had sued about its shotgun wedding to Merrill Lynch, alleging BofA hid Merrill’s pile of looming and mounting losses from shareholders who were voting to approve the deal.

BofA continues to deny all the allegations, but says it settled to put this behind it.

“Resolving this litigation removes uncertainty and risk and is in the best interests of our shareholders,” said CEO Brian Moynihan. “As we work to put these long-standing issues behind us, our primary focus is on the future and serving our customers and clients.”

But while it does end another question, the settlement is yet another reminder the bank continues to need to clean up its past before it is fully freed for growth.

Today the bank says its third-quarter, which will be reported in two weeks, will include $1.6 billion in litigation expenses. That’s well above the $963 million the bank had in the second quarter, which had been seen as a potential tapering off of these expenses by analysts.

Not all of third quarter’s litigation expense comes from today’s settlement, the bank only hints that other items are included without being more specific.

But while $2.4 billion is well below the $50 billion the suit was seeking, that the bank had to add to its reserves signals it may be more expensive than thought.

Claw backs: Former partners of failed law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP were offered a stark choice Wednesday: give back as much as $103.6 million in pay and other benefits, or face years of litigation. WSJ

Shot clock: Time is running out for U.S. securities regulators to file civil charges for alleged wrongdoing during the financial crisis. Federal laws under which the SEC usually goes after alleged fraud and other misdeeds have a five-year statute of limitations. WSJ

Put up or shut up: A Delaware judge solved the problem of plaintiffs who oppose a settlement struck on their behalf. . . Read More »

Doping charges: The U.S. agency that polices drug use in sports has informed Lance Armstrong that it intends to bring formal doping charges against him, in an action that could ultimately cost the retired cycling champion all seven of his Tour de France titles. ”I have never doped,” Mr. Armstrong said in a statement. WSJ

A welcome drop:Mexico’s drug-related murders fell about 12% during the first five months of this year, President Felipe Calderón said in an interview this week. That marks the first decline in violence in at least eight years. WSJ

Dewey suit: An ex-partner of Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP has accused the former leaders of the bankrupt law firm. . . Read More »

About Law Blog

The Law Blog covers the legal arena’s hot cases, emerging trends and big personalities. It’s brought to you by lead writer Jacob Gershman with contributions from across The Wall Street Journal’s staff. Jacob comes here after more than half a decade covering the bare-knuckle politics of New York State. His inside-the-room reporting left him steeped in legal and regulatory issues that continue to grab headlines.

A federal judge in Manhattan rejected a bid by the conservative advocacy group Citizens United to stop New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman from requiring that charities disclose to him their major donors.

Concerns about a gender gap in the legal profession tend to focus on issues like pay, billing rates and who makes partner. A new study by the American Bar Association looks inside the federal courtroom to see who's trying cases.